BMC: Still using Mulund dump

Mumbai: In a shocking revelation, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday admitted that dumping of garbage at the Mulund dumping ground is continuing even after its closure on October 1. According to civic officials, even a month after its closure, nearly 400 metric tons of garbage is being dumped at the Mulund site every day.

Raising the issue in the civic standing committee meeting on Monday, local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator Prabhakar Shinde said, “People were shocked to see trucks carrying garbage to the dump site. Locals are feeling cheated as they had celebrated in a big way after the civic body had announced the closure of the dumping ground. Their joy was short lived.”

Deputy municipal commissioner Vishwas Shankarwar, solid waste management, accepted that the BMC is taking 400 metric tons of garbage and debris to the Mulund dumping ground. “The contractor who was appointed to shut the landfill has been given a six-month mobilisation period and hence he is allowed to dump a small quantity of garbage. The contractor is awaiting permission from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB),” he said.

The BMC has appointed the consortium of Prakash Constrowell Ltd, Infotech International Ltd and EB Enviro Biotech Pvt Ltd as contractor to close down the Mulund dumpsite at the cost of Rs 731 crore over a period of six years.

The four-decade old Mulund dumping ground is spread on 24 hectare of land, where garbage is being dumped since 1967. Till this year, an estimated seven million cubic metres of trash, the height of which has reached up to 30 metres, has been dumped at the site.

The garbage has even transcended on the private land near the dumping  ground.